A/HRC/34/55 29. The above-mentioned methods, illegal acts and illicit practices are generally linked to deficiencies in the child protection system (such as inadequate procedures for providing counselling to biological parents and flawed relinquishment procedures), which are exploited by criminal networks driven by the lucrative business of selling children and facilitating illegal adoptions, often with the involvement of State officials. When illegal acts and illicit practices are of a systemic nature, States bear responsibility for them by either omission or complicity. 30. The methods employed and the actors involved are often the same in cases of illegal domestic and intercountry adoptions. Similarly, in both cases vulnerable parents, in particular mothers, are often targeted (e.g. single mothers in situations of economic hardship, from rural areas, belonging to indigenous communities and/or without access to education). 1. Illegal acts and illicit practices that result in a determination of the adoptability of the child 31. Of the different stages involved in an adoption process, those leading to a determination of the adoptability of the child are the most vulnerable to illegal acts and illicit practices and are often linked to weaknesses in national child protection systems. Even though most of the following examples refer to cases of intercountry adoption, the acts and practices described may also be committed in domestic adoption procedures. 32. The placement of children in alternative care settings, in particular in residential facilities, is often a first step leading to a determination of their adoptability. The false assumption that all children in such institutions are adoptable has widely contributed to illegal adoptions, as children can be taken without the appropriate consent even though they still have a parent, family member or other kin willing and able to care for them. In Nepal, for example, intercountry adoptions have been interrupted by receiving countries owing to the insufficiency of the procedures in place to determine the adoptability of a child.21 33. The designation of children as having been abandoned or the relinquishment of parental rights on the child can be irregularly or illegally obtained. In Guatemala, abducted and purchased children have been brought before the courts to have them declared abandoned and thus eligible for adoption.22 34. A key development is the increasing adoption of “children with special needs”.23 The terminology used in such cases covers a broad series of realities based on criteria such as the child’s age, number of siblings, illnesses, disability status or traumas. Illicit practices in this context mostly concern cases of intercountry adoptions in which States prioritize the adoption of children because they do not have appropriate childcare policies. Moreover, there have been cases of false documentation being used to classify children as having 21 22 23 8 See www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/288019/ Adoptions_restricted_list_2010.pdf. See www.cicig.org/uploads/documents/informes/INFOR-TEMA_DOC05_20101201_EN.pdf. Most intercountry adoptions in Guatemala were processed as relinquishments while recourse to the courts was made as a secondary option to process (illegal) adoptions. In general, newborn children were being procured for adoption while abandoned children were placed in residential facilities. Adoption, in particular intercountry adoption, became a response to a demand instead of being an alternative care measure. The Special Rapporteur encourages the use of child-rights compliant terms such as “children with specific or individual requirements”, which in the case of children with disabilities takes into account the specific impairments of the child and does not imply that children with disabilities have different needs.